I would like to buy a triplet bike for me, my wife and 5 year old to get into training for a world bike ride beginning early 2014.My problem is I am having trouble locating a triplet bike that is for sale.

I would like to buy a triplet bike for me, my wife and 5 year old to get into training for a world bike ride beginning early 2014.My problem is I am having trouble locating a triplet bike that is for sale.

Does anyone have some ideas on where to look for these bikes?

Why not a tandem bicycle with a kids bicycle extension? A triple would be VERY hard to find and likely not the fight size for a 5 year old.

redned wrote:Going by the picture of the triplet, how do you make sure the other two are pulling their weight?

The same way as a tandem. When your sweating your ass off and you partner is cheerfully singing along!

It is no different for a single bike. At a given cadence you can choose to put down anywhere between 0 force on the cranks or full body weight of ~750N force (more if you pull on the handlebars). On a tandem you all pedal at the same cadence. Each cyclist puts down as much or little force as they choose.

Freight on the Thorn Trident will cost nearly half of what they are quoting for the bike but the good news is that the quoted price includes VAT (similar to GST) at 20% so it will only cost you GBP 1666.67 but the bad news is that you will then have to pay GST here when it arrives on the GBP1666.67 but not on the freight.I have just bought a Thorn Raven tandem so I am familiar with the routine.

For international touring it gets to be rather difficult to carry much gear on a triple. How do you plan to cope with that? I would have thought the tandem and a single would give you more versatility - one parent rides with a full touring load on the single, other parent with the child and load (panniers, maybe trailer) on the tandem. This also gives you a single bike to run errands about town which may be of value.

The amount of stuff we carry is something I am looking at.Panniers and trailer on one bike for three people may not be possible.

My issue is my wife is not the strongest of riders.Using a tandem with me riding and with a trailer and son would most likely slow me down enough for her to stay with me if she is not loaded with too much.I suppose the bike strength will come.

I really want to explore the triplet in full as I would like us all on one bike but if it cant be done effectively it comes to tandem and single bike, which is a common set up. That probably answers my question right therelol

For international touring it gets to be rather difficult to carry much gear on a triple. How do you plan to cope with that? I would have thought the tandem and a single would give you more versatility - one parent rides with a full touring load on the single, other parent with the child and load (panniers, maybe trailer) on the tandem. This also gives you a single bike to run errands about town which may be of value.

Pete

The Commercial Invoice which is what Customs had to go on did not include freight so GST was only assessed on the cost of the bike much to my relief because the bike came fully assembled in a HUGE box which incurred a large freight charge obviously based on volume and not weight.

+1 on the advice re tandem and single. A tandem or a triplet has the same pannier capacity as a single.

On further reflection now wearing my Chartered Accountant's hat I recall that there are protocols called double taxation agreements which provide that if a transaction is taxed in the jurisdiction of one party it will be exempt in the jurisdiction of the corresponding party so this may be why I was charged VAT on the freight in the UK and not charged GST in Oz.

Tandem and tagalong is doable, here's mine: If you are going this route it is likely that you'll need to fabricate a better tagalong connection than what comes from the factory, for some reason they all seem to be bad, I haven't seen a good one yet even on ones that cost three times as much as mine. I've improved mine over the original but I wouldn't be happy with it for touring. Typically the connection allows the extension to rock, in relation to the tow bike. It is a battle to make the connection properly solid.

I've previously pulled a trailer with two kids behind a tandem. A tandem is a great towing vehicle.

I'm actually with Deon on this one and reckon that the Co-Motion Periscope Trident Convertible is the way to go (with a trailer). A properly designed bike that can really do it all. Definitely not cheap, but the bike will outlast the memory of the expense.

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